Campaigners fighting to reopen the Woodhead rail line have welcomed a move to seal-up the route’s three tunnels.

The government has announced it will not buy them from present owners, the National Grid, which now plans to seal them up.

It means that the three mile-long tunnels, which opened in 1845 and 1852, will not form part of any new trans-Pennine rail link.

But campaigners hoping to reinstate the Woodhead line say the government’s announcement offers them a ‘real glimmer of hope’ that ministers are taking rail modernisation seriously.

David Bryson, chairman of Save the Woodhead Line, said: “It’s a positive development. The minister said he’s not ruling out a whole new railway line.

“HS2 is also important for us. At the moment one of HS2’s weaknesses is its approach to Manchester. At present it’s planned to come from the south through seven miles of tunnels under south Manchester.

“The obvious way to approach Manchester is from the east – and that’s where the Woodhead line would come in.”

The Woodhead line closed to passengers in 1970, with trans-Pennine services using the Hope Valley line instead. The route finally closed to freight services in 1980.

But campaigners have never given up hope that the line, which called at Broadbottom, Dinting and Hadfield, could one day reopen.

In a statement transport minister Stephen Hammond said: “If an additional rail route was ever required between Manchester and Sheffield, it is unlikely that even the modern tunnels would be suitable for re-use and the best solution is most likely to be the construction of a new tunnel.

“My decision does not rule the possibility of re-opening the Woodhead route to rail traffic in the future, should a new line ever be required.”